March Monthly Challenge

Nave Nave Moe (Sacred Spring, Sweet Dreams) by Paul Gaugin 1894, Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg

About the Art

Gauguin painted this after he moved to Tahiti in 1891, seeking inspiration from the native "primitive" culture, which he regarded as more real and more sincere. It is characterized by clear outlines, flat forms, and vibrant colors, which reflect the influence of native art on the artist.

About the Artist

Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin, 7 June 1848 – 8 May 1903, was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramist, and writer. His bold experimentation with colouring led directly to the Synthetist style of modern art while his expression of the inherent meaning of the subjects in his paintings, under the influence of the cloisonnist style, paved the way to Primitivism and the return to the pastoral. He was also an influential proponent of wood engraving and woodcuts as art forms.

Challenge Color Palette

Blog Challenge

On March 31st we will host a blog tour of everyone who blogs about their challenge entry! To participate, blog about your challenge piece and leave a link in the comments below. Your link must be posted here by March 30th to be included in the blog tour. There will be a bonus prize for those who enter in the blog tour and a prizes for our readers!

The Prizes:

Winners will be randomly chosen from all the qualifying entries on April 1st.

Our sponsors this month are: Ornamentea, and Golem Studios please visit us tomorrow to see the prizes!

Featured Designer of the Week:

From all the entries during the month, an editor is going to pick their favorite design to be featured every Monday here on the ABS. We want to give our participants more time in the spotlight! Our Featured Designer will be this Monday, so get those entries in soon.

How to enter the Monthly Challenge:

1. Create something using an art bead that fits within our monthly theme. We post the art to be used as your inspiration to create. This challenge is open to jewelry-makers, fiber artists, collage artist, etc. The art bead can be created by you or someone else. The challenge is to inspire those who use art beads and to see all the different ways art beads can be incorporated into your handiwork.

***Beads strung on a chain, by themselves and beads simply wire or cord will not be accepted.***

2. Upload your photo to our flickr group. Detailed instructions can be found here and click here for a tutorial for sending your picture to the group.

Please add the tag or title MAR ABS to your photos. Include a short description, who created the art beads and a link to your blog, if you have one.

Deadline is March 31st. Photos are approved by our moderators, if a photo hasn't followed the guidelines it will not be approved. You may upload 2 photos a day.

What is an Art Bead?
An art bead is a bead, charm, button or finding made by an independent artist. Art beads are the vision and handiwork of an individual artist. You can read more about art beads here.

***A bead that is handmade is not necessarily an art bead. Hill Tribe Silver, Kazuri ceramic beads or lampwork beads made in factories are examples of handmade beads that are not considered art beads.
Beaded beads, stamped metal pendants or wire-wrapped components are not considered art beads for our challenge.***

p.s. If you have a blog, post your entry and a link to the ABS challenge to spread the beady goodness.